Of Merriment and Mistletoe
by flamehead23a
Summary: On Holiday in the South Pole, the Gaang is treated to their travelling friend's favorite winter tradition. Madness abounds, and Pakku is not amused. TAS canon, pre series, first in my winter requests series.
1. How it all started

"So are you guys ready for the latest and greatest winter tradition?"

"Ready as we'll ever be." Mai sighed and shifted her position on the large mass of pelts, blankets, and rugs that made for furniture in Pakku and Kanna's hearth room.

Ty Lee's bottom lip quivered in its first pout of the morning. "Mai, be nice."

"I'm always nice."

"Can we hurry this along?" Pakku drained the last of his breakfast's cod cow stew from its bowl. The hearty meal was doing nothing to improve his disposition. "Some of us have work to do today."

Kanna nudged him in the small of his back with her foot as she took dishes from the igluvijaq's hearth room to its kitchen. Ty Lee scampered up to help. "Oh hush. Let the young man say his piece."

"Gotta side with Grampakku on this one, Mat." Sokka lounged on a pelt next to the central hearth. "We're burning valuable daylight."

Next to him, Suki spoke over Pakku's angry, "Will you stop calling me that!"

"Isn't that what your lemon lamps are for?" She asked.

"Sure, but lemons don't just grow on trees, babe."

Katara raised an eyebrow. "Care to run through that sentence again, Sokka?"

"You know what I mean."

"Anyways," Aang's deepening baritone interjected before another sibling squabble could pick up steam. "What's the tradition, Mat?"

"Yes, please tell us," groggy amusement was obvious in Zuko's tone as he pulled the kettle off the central hearth and filled several whale-tooth mugs with tea. "We're all on pins and needles."

"Not right now, but I bet you are when the sun goes down, right Mai?" Ty Lee's comment could be heard through the thick curtain that separated the two rooms. Zuko, on his way around the hearth with the tray of mugs, seemed to choke on his own tongue and very nearly spilled the tea. An arm shot out of a person-sized pile of blankets to grab the back of his shirt as he tripped, steadying him.

"Okay... well, moving on and forgetting that ever happened." Mat continued as Ty Lee poked her head back in the room, eyebrows wagging, and sokka howled with laughter. "Here we go." with a flourish the young itinerant brought his hand behind his back and produced a sprig of leaves, dotted here and there with small, white berries.

"Tah dah!"

"Someone wanna tell me what we're all staring at?" a voice mumbled from the heap of blankets.

Mat was undeterred. "It's mistletoe!"

"What's mistletoe?"

"It's a parasitic plant that grows on bushes and trees," Katara said, "The leaves are good for healing teas, poultices, and lowering blood pressure, but the berries can only be crushed and used to bind bandages or minor wounds. They're deeply poisonous if ingested."

"So what's the tradition," suki asked, "we poison each other?"

"That sounds like a lot of Fire Nation traditions, actually." Zuko collapsed next to Mai with a cup of tea, suitably recovered.

"No no no, no poisoning. See, we hang the mistletoe up, like on the archway leading into the house." Mat brought the small branch up above his head, pantomiming it's position. "And whenever two people pass or stand underneath it at the same time, they kiss!"

Pakku looked skeptical. "...That's it?"

"That's it."

Suki raised her hand. "Okay, I don't get it. How does a poisonous, life sapping, parasite plant get associated with a tradition about romance?"

Mai looked at her. "You mean besides the obvious?"

"I remember the monks teaching me about some of the more rural earth kingdom villages," Aang put in, "apparently they'd use mistletoe as an aphrodisiac."

Beside him, Katara snorted. "Yeah, because excessive vomiting and incontinence is so incredibly sexy." Aang just shrugged, and she narrowed her eyes as a thought crossed her mind. "Wait... you had to have been under twelve back then. Why were air monks talking to _you_ about aphrodisiacs?"

Aang chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his neck. "Uh...I was kind of a curious kid."

"It's not a romance tradition," Mat broke in, before pausing to reconsider. "At least, not all the time. I guess it all depends on who you're under the mistletoe with."

"Well if it's not all about steamy make-outs," Sokka asked, "what's the point?"

"To spread warmth and holiday cheer!" Again Mat paused, this time a little embarrassed. "I think. Look, it's something I remember my folks doing at parties and stuff when I was young. I figured since you guys have been teaching me so much about your solstice celebration stuff, I'd share a holiday tradition of my own."

"Well I think it's a great idea!" Ty Lee said as she entered the room, wiping the remnants of dishwater off her hands. Kanna followed, nodding in agreement.

"Of course you do," Mai intoned dryly, "it involves kissing."

Ty Lee stuck her tongue out. She promptly stuck it back in when the last two inches of her pony tail was sheered off and stuck to the igluvijaq's ice hewn wall by a stiletto.

Sokka grinned as Ty Lee shrieked and ducked behind Suki for protection."Now that I think about it, some winter cheer might be a good idea."

"I agree," Kanna nodded. "This late in the season, the cold temperatures and long nights can make some people a bit..." She looked to her husband, "Snippy."

Pakku scoffed and rose from the pelts. "If I'm 'snippy' it's because we're sharing the home I bent with my own two hands, for just my wife and myself, with an overcrowding of hyperactive teenagers!"

"Well then, that's exactly why we need it." Mat said, "it's a mood improving tradition!"

Katara rose as well, stretching in preparation for a day the day of construction ahead. "I'm willing to try anything that might cheer up our little Grumpy-Gopher." She patted the heap of blankets and furs affectionately.

The heap rustled. "Mmmkn s'lest."

"What was that?"

A ebony locked head poked out of it's cocoon of warmth, and sightless, dull-green eyes glared up at Katara. "I said, 'I'm making a list.' a list of everyone who pokes fun at the blind earthbender girl while out here on a dumb floating hunk of ice. I'm making a list, and I'll be checking it twice just to make sure I got everyone. And when spring comes, and I'm on solid earth again..." Toph burrowed back underneath her furs and the room, the house, the whole iceberg, seemed to suddenly rise and drop several feet. "...There'll be a reckoning."

The group was silent as they recovered from the tremor. Sokka spoke first.

"Did anyone else just feel the sea floor shake?"

Aang turned to Mat. "Better get that mood improver up. Like, _now_."

"I'm on it."

...\/...\/...\/...

So here it is, the start of my winter request series. Over on my DA page, I asked for prompts people wanted me to fufill, and the first was, "Where Mat tries to explain the concept of the mistletoe to the gang and it just gets cute and ridiculous and nobody gets it?"

I'll be throwing it up in segments, either one a day or one every other day, depending on what you guys want. So...leave a comment and let me know!


	2. Young Love

**Chapter II**

* * *

Kanna was busy knitting when she first heard their voices past the entryway.

"Of all the monkeyfeather brained, irresponsible things to do..."

"I know, I know."

"If you knew you wouldn't have done it! You're not the only one on this iceberg, Aang. People live here!"

"Katara, I said I'm sorry like a hundred million times already. Isn't that good enough?"

Kanna shook her head. Apparently even the most peace-loving of couples weren't immune to mid-winter spats.

"Good enough? _Good enough?_ Aang, you bent the whole island twenty miles off course to go arctic hippo watching!"

They were moving through the entrance tunnel now, their steps confirmed it. Katara using the voice Kanna remembered from years ago. The tone she took whenever Sokka got particularly irksome and she was trying her best to both lecture and annoy him as revenge.

"I wanted to see where they were going in such a hurry! Don't you ever wonder where they disappear to in the winter?"

"Not when I'm in charge of bending an entire island sheltering a whole village worth of people to the Southern Tribal Conclave!"

"What should I have done Katara," Aang's voice, who she had never heard be anything other than accommodating when it came to her granddaughter, now sounded distinctly strained. "Just fly after the hippos on my own and leave the island without any steering at all?"

"Yes! Or better yet, you couldhave not left in the first place and_ just done your job_."

They were through the tunnel now, and had paused at the edge of the bamboo mats and animal pelts to take off their winter boots. Kanna kept her eyes on her knitting, and her ears on her young ones.

"Well I got us back on course, and we're only a few hours behind Sokka's completely unrealistic schedule. Besides, all the kids in the village seemed to like seeing the hippos too, so you know what? I take it back. I'm not sorry at all anymore."

Katara's jilted screech cut off when Kanna took that moment to clear her throat.

"Huh-charamlookuphah-hem."

Katara rose her gaze from Aang, just as he did the same. And hanging above them was a ornamental grouping of green leaves and white berries. The next moments were devoid of any rational thought, as they were instead filled to the brim with Aang pulling her flush against his growing frame (Just how tall was he going to get, anyway?) and kissing her very, very soundly.

As they finally disengaged, panting like a couple of overrun ostrich horses, Kanna stowed her knitting and moved into the kitchen to start work on dinner.

"All right then." Katara's voice was throaty and low, an octave above sin itself. "Apology accepted."

"Heh heh...Wait, what?"

Kanna could only chuckle as the two started up again, though this time devoid of any actual anger.

"Ahh, young love."

...\/...\/...\/...


	3. Attack from Above

**Chapter III**

* * *

"...So if I can get the other Southern villages on board, and they make floating islands of their own...Gramp-Gramp will totally respect me!"

Suki rolled her eyes and smiled, snuggling closer against her boyfriend's side. "I think the best way to earn Pakku's respect is to stop calling him by all these silly names."

"Nah, that can't be right. He secretly loves it, I'm sure."

Suki just sighed in entertained exasperation, but stopped short and stiffened as they turned the corner.

Sokka stopped too. "What is it?"

"Look." Suki gestured to the roof of the igluvijaq, where smoke was curling lazily out of an opened ceiling vent. "Someone's in the house."

"So?"

"No one was supposed to be there right now, right?"

"Uhh... Sokka rubbed his chin with a mittened hand. "Gran-Gran's at the market. Katara, Aang, and Pakku are working on section twelve-ox of the village. Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee are teaching a Fire Nation culture class, and Mat took Toph ice fishing." His face soured at that. "Which was either a great idea, or a really really bad one. I'm still not sure yet."

"So if nobodies home.." Suki pulled her arm from around Sokka's side and went for her tessen hid beneath her parka. "Then who's home?"

Now it was Sokka's turn to sigh. He knew better than to try and reason with his girlfriend when she had her warrior face on, war paint or no paint. Instead, he stepped to the side and made a sweeping gesture with both arms. "Fine, go ahead. You want me up top?"

Suki nodded once before she crouched low and ducked into the entrance tunnel, noiselessly sliding between the heavy pelt flap and the frozen threshold it covered. Sokka tapped the toe of his boot against the icy hut before jamming his foot into the residence and scrabbling up the curved wall.

He scaled the house easily, the familiar movements ingrained in him since childhood. Reaching the peak of the domed rooftop, he hunkered down next to the ceiling vent and ticked off the seconds until Suki gave a slightly embarrassed, but still very strong, womanly, and independent, "All clear."

What he did not expect to hear was her her startled yelp, and the brief scuffle that ensued. Sokka found his feet in a flash, but froze when her voice was suddenly cut off, muffled by something or someone against her will.

Adrenalin frothed and surged, and Sokka tore the war-club loose from his hip so fast the straps broke. Bringing the heavy sea-stone end up over his head, he pummeled the ice around ceiling vent with a primal urgency. The igluvijaq's roof cracked and splintered, and as he fell into the structure as an instinctual, inarticulate battle-cry leapt from his mouth.

"—wha?"

Sokka blinked once. Then twice. Then just to make sure, three times. He must have fallen on his head and gained a concussion, because from his sprawled location the floor, the scene before him just didn't make sense.

Suki was standing, stock still and war fans raised, while Ty Lee hung from the top of the entrance arch, her feet dug into the wall on either side of the hanging mistletoe. She was bent upside-down and backwards, so her head fell level with her victim's. Her long braid danced and bounced as she made little moan-groan noises and tilted her head for better access. She had rested her hands on either side of Suki's face, either for balance or to hold her still—Sokka wasn't sure.

And Suki, from Sokka's perspective, wasn't putting up nearly as big a fight as she could have been.

Finally, after one last nibble on her upper lip, Ty Lee's hands moved from Suki's flushed cheeks to her quivering shoulders, which beneath the parka were most assuredly flushed as well. She pulled back, opened her eyes, and produced a tiny pout when she finally saw who she was kissing.

"Aww, monkeyfeathers. I thought Sokka was going to come in first." She sighed, but not in any real disappointment. "Oh well."

With a jerk her feet came loose of their holds, and she swung outwards to land lightly on the bamboo mats, her hands never leaving Suki's shoulders. She stood on tip-toe for one last quick peck, then looked over her shoulder at the downed wolf warrior. Her grin looked more at home on the cat owl that caught the canary toad.

"Guess I'll just have to try again." And then she left, hips swaying. Her all-too-sensual giggle echoed back at them through the entrance tunnel, and Suki furiously fought to push down her blush as pulled  
Sokka from the pile of snow and up to his feet.

"Was that... I mean...Did I see tongue?" He brushed snow from his shoulders, and to her horror he started to grin. "_Two_ tongues?"

Suki turned on her heel, her face lighting up again.

"You won't be so cocky after you get caught next. Now are you going to help me fix the roof or what?"

...\/...\/...\/...


	4. Karmic Backlash

**Chapter IV**

* * *

As it happened, Sokka actually _was_ next to be caught in the mistletoe's creeping tangle of green leaves and white berries. It happened mere hours later. After they had repaired the ceiling vent to the best of their non-bending capabilities Suki had left, "To knock some sense into that insubordinate, hyperactive ball of pink." She gave her boyfriend explicit orders to stay put and keep himself busy, telling him that it was Kyoshi warrior business, and that he as a man had no part in it.

Sokka really, really wanted a part of it.

Even as a boy it had been hard for him to stay indoors, especially when he knew something much more exciting was going on outside. Only now what had once been Fire Nation raids or Water Tribe war preparations was even the slightest possibility of steamy Kyoshi corporal-sapphic punishment, and that just made it worse.

He tried, really. But after about half a candle—which, in his opinion, was all the waiting a red-blooded water tribesman could realistically be expected to wait in this situation—he was on the edge of the bamboo mats, the head of a walrus yak pelt next to his knees and his fingers furiously working up the laces on his boots.

The outer pelt flap swished, and he jumped straight out of his boots as if burned.

"I wasn't getting ready to go outside and find you two, I swear!"

After a pregnant pause, Mai's dry voice called back from the entrance tunnel. "Do I even want to know?"

Sokka sagged with relief, and went back to his boots. "It's probably best that you don't."

He heard her trudging up the tunnel, seemingly alone. "It doesn't have anything to do with the snow tumor growing on top of igloo, does it?"

"Igluvijaq," Sokka corrected absentmindedly, "and sort of. I kinda fell through the roof earlier today. Again, best you don't know."

"Ashes, you're more of a spaz then Ty Lee."

The laces dropped out of his fingers, and he fumbled to grab them again. "Yeah, speaking of Ty...", a lump rose in his throat, and he swallowed it down, coercing his voice to sound innocent. "Ty Lee, any idea where she might be at?"

If Mai was suspicious, she didn't sound like it. "She ditched out on our lesson five minutes in. Then your dad came and asked to borrow zuko for a moment—something about a trade treaty or whatever—and I haven't seen them since. Had to deal with twenty little Tom-toms entirely on my own for the whole lesson."

Even rushing as he was, sokka paused to wince. "Ugh. Let me guess, bathroom breaks?"

Mai just leaned against the archway and sniffed.

There. Finally. With his boots on and fingers appropriately mittened, Sokka leapt to his feet. "

"Okay well I'd love to stay and chat but—"

"I really don't care." Mai interrupted, "Though aren't you forgetting something?"

Dangling above her, above him, above both of them, the mistletoe taunted.

Sokka's gut reaction was a sharp bark of laughter. "Good one, Mai."

Face impassive, she advanced. "Do I sound like I'm joking?"

"Whoa, hey hey hey!" Sokka backpeddled, first stumbling over the bamboo mats, then nearly tripping over the stones that lined the central hearth. He swallowed heavily, that lump in his throat rising again, but for a very different reason. "Wha, we're in relationships! With other people!"

"That doesn't change the rules." He could swear she was taunting him, he just knew it. "Besides, that didn't seem to stop Ty Lee." At least he hoped that smoky, husky voice she was using was her taunting tone, and not indicative of something else.

"What if Zuko found out?"

Mai hummed. Actually _hummed_. "That would be pretty interesting, wouldn't it?"

He was up against the wall, suddenly wishing he could melt like the ice he had his back to.

"So," She spoke in a voice like black velvet, and it rolled over him with a dark, cruel warmth. This time when Sokka swallowed, the lump stayed. "Are you going to man up and kiss me, or what?"

"Uh, um...ahem. That is, ah." feeling very little like he was 'manning up', as she put it, Sokka screwed his eyes shut and puckered up.

She snorted, and when he opened his eyes she was half way across the room, heading for the hearth. "Whatever. I'm bored now."

"W-what?"

"I said I'm bored. Means I'm not going to kiss you, Water Tribe."

"O-oh." Heart still hammering against his ribcage like a rabid polar bear dog, Sokka wasn't sure if he was relieved, disappointed, or what. All his emotions were swirling around at once, and it was really hard to pick one out of the crowd. Except confusion. He was definitely confused. "Okay then?"

She regarded him out of the corner of her eye, apparently finding it too troublesome to turn her head fully. "Weren't you going to do something?"

As if released from a spell, Sokka started and peeled himself from the wall. Saying a lot of things that might have once been words, he made a beeline for the entrance tunnel.

He made it back beneath the mistletoe before she called out again.

"Sokka."

He turned, his body still two steps ahead of his brain. A sudden flick of her arm, and a blur of metal rocketed towards him. With a yelp sokka shot a mittened hand up to check his cheek, covering the whisper-shallow, two-inch cut that suddenly bloomed there.

The Kunai quivered in the ice next to his ear, ebony lipstick accenting one side of it's polished steel blade.

"Happy holidays."

...\/...\/...\/...


	5. 190 Proof

**Chapter V**

* * *

It was nighttime. At least, Toph guessed it was nighttime. There was less noise, at any rate. Most of her friends had gone, either to the newly made rooms of the old fart's expanded house, or to little houses of their own, to sleep.

Toph's face soured at that, and she took a pull from the bottle of ice wine she'd liberated from Pakku's secret stash. Houses. Yeah right. Houses her cracked toenail. Houses were four-walled, warm buildings that had solid floors, actual doors, and weren't made of stupid, frigid, non-earthbendable ice!

Really, this whole winter holiday had been a complete bust. She'd been reduced to seeing things only in the vaguest, fuzziest of shapes, since ice made for horrible vibrations and the closest solid concentration of earth was the sea floor deep below them. Sokka's suggestion of getting her a seeing-eye-penguin was funny enough, but only after she'd really had time to think about it. And by then she had already finished pounding the blubber out of him for suggesting it, so it would have been bad taste for her to then admit to his humor.

Bad taste. That reminded her. She gulped again at the wine, pretty much the only Water Tribe thing she found palatable. Honestly, how did these people live on tentacles and fish and sea prunes day in and day out and not go completely crazy? Oh wait, they've chosen to follow Sokka's suggestion of rebuilding all Southern Water Tribe villages onto huge floating icebergs so they can combine and part the whole nation as they want to. They _are_ crazy.

At least their wine was alright.

Grumbling, Toph staggered over to the firewood pile and threw a few more logs into the hearth. She heard the dying flames sputter at the new fuel, but she spat some wine onto the logs and was rewarded with the sound of the fire flaring up once again.

Man, Pakku sure kept some strong stuff in that cabinet. Probably why it had been locked. Toph took another pull and went back to her pile of blankets. She wondered briefly if the heat she got blooming from her stomach and racing to her fingertips and toes was how firebenders felt all the time. Or Mat, for that matter.

Speaking of, where was that flighty dunderhead? He'd left right in the middle of their ice fishing trip, stiffening in his seat beside her like she'd goosed him (which she might have, to be honest. They'd snuck along a fair amount of booze to keep themselves warm as they fished.) before jumping up and running out the door, yelling words over his shoulder like, "Work" and "Emergency" and "Silent Night, Holy Night, is suddenly no longer silent nor holy." By the time she'd thrown on those stupid heavy boots that kept her feet from freezing against the ice and stumbled outside, he was gone.

Another frown, another pull. Needless to say, Toph was _not_ happy about having to trudge blindly back to the village by herself. Maybe it was a good thing Mat hadn't yet returned from his mysterious work trip, because for several days afterward she would still grind her teeth and mumble some choice Earth-Rumble expletives under her breath whenever his name was mentioned. Which happened every now and again, when one of her friends commented on how well his little mistletoe tradition was catching on and lifting moods left and right.

So now, being a little drunk and pretty much the only one of her friends who hadn't kissed someone beneath some mistletoe yet, Toph was feeling slightly less inclined to knock Mat into next week. But only if he came through the door _like right now._

Even inebriated, Toph's patience was limited.

But then, a sound at the door. This was it, time to move it or loose it. Toph rocked off the pelts and padded over to the hearth, killing the fire with a bucketful of snow and dashing the room into darkness. Hey, if she had to be blind, why shouldn't he? She wobbled towards the archway, feeling for the border of the bamboo mats with her toes. She counted the tired, trudging paces of the figure as he approached, pleased to hear heavy boots crunching on ice rather than the lighter, softer pace of a girl's shoes. Toph winced at remembering Suki's recounting of her ambush and took one last swig of wine.

When the steps came close enough, Toph took a single steadying breath and launched—or perhaps fell—forward at the approaching figure. She heard a surprised gasp from him as they connected, and as the heavy furs she'd had over her shoulders fell to the floor strong, masculine arms instinctively wrapped themselves around her, hands resting in all the right places.

"Mmmm," she burrowed her face in his chest, reveling in his internal heat. "Birdy, yer'so warmmm."

From above her issued a surprised, strangled squawk. Toph paid it no mind as she inhaled his scent. Strange. Gone was the ever-present smell of citrus and road dust,replaced instead by the faintest tinge of ashes and old leather. Something about that niggled in the back of Toph's brain, but she'd come too far to let that stop her.

Toph took in a deep breath, then let it out. The figure above her recoiled slightly, but she just giggled and pulled him closer. "M'srry 'bout that. Been tryin' to keep warm with some wine..." She let the bottle drop from her hand. It fell with an empty clunk as she brought her arms up to twine around his neck. "But now yer back, so I don' need it."

He made a token resistance again, and this time Toph frowned. Hadn't they been dancing—in some occasions, literally—around doing this for a while now? Why was he so hesitant? Well, he wasn't flying away this time. Not on her watch.

"Ya'know Birdy, erry' ones been goin' on about yer little tradishh—hic—tradishhin." Toph went on tiptoes now, pulling herself up while she pulled him down. She could feel his breath pour over her in hot, shaky breaths. Spirits, what a worry-wart. "I've been waitin' fer y-you t'come back 's I can...we can try it."

"To-mmmf!" A token excuse was cut off when Toph closed the gap and sealed her lips to his. From all she'd been told, the best parts of kissing happened after tongues got involved, so Toph took advantage of his still open mouth to get right to the good stuff. Moans were made, from both sides, and if she wasn't so busy sucking face, Toph would have done a little victory dance. She settled for molding herself closer to his frame and smiling against their kiss. Finally, after years of no-so-patient patience, she he had him!

She paused for a second to breathe, and again he started to protest. She silenced his raspy resistance before he could finish the first word. Again the niggling arose in the back of her mind, but rather than work out why Mat's voice suddenly bothered her, Toph instead deepened the kiss yet again, invading his mouth forcefully and fully—fueled by equal parts impatient desperation, nervous anticipation, and more than a little inebriation.

By now though, the surprise had worn off. He brought his hands between her arms and moved them apart, breaking her hold, grabbing her hands, and pulling backwards in one swift movement.

"To—Toph!" he gasped out.

She was breathing hard too, and by the amount of heat she felt pooling in her face—among other places—she knew it wasn't just from exertion. Angry and more than a little hurt at being so ardently denied, Toph broke his hold and groped blindly for his shoulders. "What? What the heck is wrong with..." She trailed off when instead of his shoulders she got his cheeks, and felt their respectively smooth and leathery textures. The niggling resurfaced, harder than ever, and suddenly she knew why she smelled smoke instead of citrus, heard rasping instead of svelte, and felt one very large facial scar.

"If you'd stop trying to strangle me with your tongue and let me talk," Zuko hissed, "I think you'd figure it out."

If Mat had been there, he could have said with assurance that no one in the history of all fiction had gone from that drunk and horny to that sober and mortified in such a small amount of time. But since he wasn't, all everyone got instead was the loudest, most bloodcurdling yell the south pole had ever heard, followed quickly by a Fire Lord shaped hole in the side of Pakku and Kanna's igluvijaq.

...\/...\/...\/...


	6. How it all ended

**Chapter VI**

* * *

"So, how's the Mistletoe tradition going?"

"Fairly well, all things considering. Tell me, have you run into your blind friend yet?"

"Pakku, you just saw me walk out of a dead-end ally in the middle of the night, brushing sand out of my hair."

"Fair enough. What is that smell, by the way? Perfume?"

"Frankincense and myrrh. Long story."

The waterbending master shrugged his shoulders. "I simply thought you were hiding."

Mat stopped dead in the snow. "Should I be?"

Pakku kept moving, turning the corner and onto the next street. After a moment of looking up at the night's multitude of twinkling stars, Mat sighed and followed. He caught up, and Pakku spoke again. "I must give grudging respect to my grandson-in-law. This little project of his is turning into a village I can really take pride in."

"I know what you mean," Matthias marveled at the city born of ice and snow. It had really come together in his short time away. "Once the other Southern Chiefs come to conclave and see his work, Sokka's going to be in high demand."

Pakku sniffed. "Whatever gets him out from underfoot. At least Hakoda treats me with a modicum of the respect I deserve."

"Ahh, get over yourself, Pakku." Mat grinned and clapped the older man on the shoulder. "You know it's great to finally have family. Besides, having a gaggle of friends and relatives crowding your home is a holiday staple no matter what world you're on."

"I'll have to take your word for it." Pakku said dryly, "But that just begs the question...if it's such a staple, why aren't you home for the holidays yourself?"

Mat grew quiet, and as the joviality drained out of his face Pakku thought the boy suddenly looked entirely too worn for his comparatively fewer years.

"I don't really have a home. Not anymore, at least. But hey, you know me," Mat forced a smile to his face. "Even if I did, it's not like I'd really get some time to relax. The Old Man has me running ragged, especially around this time of year."

Resisting the urge to comment on just how well he knew of "The Old Man" and his machinations, Pakku instead awkwardly returned Mat's earlier clap on the shoulder and steered him onto the villages main street.

"Have you seen our new village square yet, Traveler?"

Still doing his best to shake off what remained of his cloudy mood, Mat was taken off guard by the question. "Just walked out of an allyway, remember?"

"Like I said earlier," Pakku continued on as if he hadn't had spoken, "Sokka did an adequate job designing the plans and directing the construction. But really, it was myself and the other waterbenders that brought a sense of elegance and sophistication to the final product."

"No arguments here." Mat said as he marveled at the intricate swirling archways of cold, clear crystal. The huge domed rooftops, bent an arctic blue that seemed to glow in the night sky. Even windows of clear ice that had been crafted amid walls of solid, sturdy snow.

"Yes, well above and beyond even our considerable skills and talents, I suppose something must also be said..." They had come to the end of the road and the main square that finished it. Mat passed beneath a final archway and stopped dead once again. "About the décor as well." Pakku murmured.

All around them, the darkness of night gave way to golden radiance. Lanterns of all shapes and sizes—from traditional Southern Water Tribe Whale bone, to Fire Nation Paper, and even Sokka's flameless lemon lamps—bathed the square in warm hues, bouncing patterns off the ice as they swayed in a gentle breeze.

And everywhere, everywhere, mistletoe hung. Sprigs of milk-white berries and forest green leaves dangled in windowsills, or hung from doorways. Some had even been braided together in complex swirls of pattern to trail along archways and the sides of buildings. Wherever he looked, Mat's vision was filled with the colors green, white, and gold.

"...How?" he choked.

"Apparently that village the Avatar remembered from one hundred years ago still exists, and it seems their...eccentrics...have only grown with time. When he flew up and explained he wanted to surprise a friend, they were all to happy to trade some of their store."

"Surprise?" Mat turned, questioning. "For who?"

Pakku just gave him a look, one so intense that Mat had to turn away, so the old man wouldn't see the gambit of emotions playing across his face.

"They pick up on more than you realize, Traveler." Pakku spoke quietly. "Even the blind one—especially the blind one—can see you've gone through as many trials and tribulations as they themselves have. Why would they not want you to find the same peace they we are all now enjoying?"

"This...This isn't right." Mat swallowed, and wondered when his eyes got so itchy without him noticing. Must be the arctic air. "You've all done so much for me, when I'm supposed to leave no impression at all." He laughed, a short, sharp bark that held no mirth and cracked at the end. "I'm going to catch hell for this, I just know it. The Old Man's going to flip."

"Perhaps. But you're young, and it's the holidays. Why not enjoy yourself while you can, consequences be damned?"

This time, Mat's laughter was genuine. "Pakku, these southerners sure have brought out your inner rebel."

Pakku rolled his eyes and snorted. "Blame my wife. I know I do."

The White Phoenix turned to regard him again. This time his face was joyful, his eyes watery but crinkled at their edges in smile. "Thank you, Pakku. Truly."

The elderly man waved him off. "Don't thank me, boy. I was against the idea from the get-go. Now the villagers will insist this garishness be strung up every year, I just know it."

"All the same, I wish I could so you just how much I appreciate—"

His voiced was drowned out as a particularly strong breeze blew through the golden square. Windowpanes it rattled, drifts of snow swirled to and fro, and one of the hanging pieces of mistletoe broke loose from it's binding to list, twirl, and spin through the air and land right at their feet.

Mat numbly took in the branchlet, green and white and oh-so-traitorous, before shifting his gaze up to Pakku. The waterbending master looked like he'd just been fed a lemon.

"Uhh..." Mat looked over his shoulder, checking that they were alone before softly making a suggestion. "How about we just shake hands?"

"Pakku nodded once. "I won't tell if you won't.

The clasped hands, shook once, and refused to make eye contact for the rest of the season.

...\/...\/...\/...

So this is for my good friend, apparent fan, and best fan-art-machine I've ever known, TaiKaze. She's been one of the biggest commentators on TAS, (and most all of my work, for that matter.) and our ongoing dialog has been motivation for me to keep on writing more times then I can remember. I've never met her in person, what with there being several thousand miles of ocean between us, but I cannot imagine calling her anything but a friend.

Happy holidays, Tai. Hope you enjoy.

And to everyone else: HOLY STUFF THIS PIECE GOT AWAY FROM ME. Don't expect anything else this long for these winter requests, please. Not because your requests are any less interesting or important to me, but because if I put as much length and time into each one as I did this, we'll be here till march before I finally finish.

That said, next up on the list...Loopy's Mai Vs. Sokka: Does snow make or break a holiday? (giving loopy a nod for his Lemon Lamp idea, which I totally stole from one of his stories because it was so awesome. If you haven't gone and absolutely plundered his gallery yet, why are you still here? Scoot!


End file.
